{"id":388,"date":"2017-12-03T23:21:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T04:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=388"},"modified":"2017-12-03T23:24:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T04:24:08","slug":"game-ramblings-59-rime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Game Ramblings #59 &#8211; RiME"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greybox.com\/rime\/en\/\">More Info from Grey Box<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Genre<\/strong>: Adventure\/Puzzle<\/li>\n<li><strong>Platform<\/strong>: Switch<\/li>\n<li><strong>Also Available On<\/strong>: PS4, Xbox One, Windows<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>TL;DR<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Light puzzle-based gameplay feels like it aspires to be Ico\/Journey, even if it doesn&#8217;t quite reach those heights<\/li>\n<li>Fantastically good soundtrack and beautiful visual style<\/li>\n<li>Disappointing performance problems on the Switch, even in docked mode<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Admittedly this is a game that should be played on something other than the Switch.\u00a0 At the end of the day this is more of an experience than it is a straight game, with the bulk of the gameplay existing as small and simple puzzle segments wrapped around a lot of audio and visual mastery.\u00a0 As such, it deserves to be played in as high fidelity as possible.\u00a0 That said, I&#8217;m an Unreal Engine developer, and this is using UE4, and my curiosity got the better of me.\u00a0 While the Switch did an alright job keeping up, it was clear that the folks couldn&#8217;t quite wrangle the hardware in a great fashion, but the downfalls there couldn&#8217;t stop this from being a worthwhile play through.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_391\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-391\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_depression.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The story runs through the five stages of grief, with visuals matching the appropriate area. In this case, depression carries the theme with rain and dark lighting throughout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Any game that tries to be more of an emotional experience than a typical game needs to carry a strong theme, and <em>RiME\u00a0<\/em>does a lot to succeed here.\u00a0 In this case, the story takes place going through the five stages of grief, with each of the four main levels and epilogue covering one of these.\u00a0 While your typical gameplay was the same in each area, the dangers associated with each spot tended to carry towards the theme.\u00a0 In <strong>bargaining<\/strong>, for example, the player is attempting to resurrect robots in a series of dark caves while attempting to avoid a horde of faceless humanoids.\u00a0 By the time we get to\u00a0<strong>depression<\/strong>, these faceless creatures have stopped even attempting to interact with the player, leaving him to his own as things start to crumble around him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_390\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-390\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-390\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_bird.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-390\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the anger level, the player is constantly harassed by a bird-like creature, attempting to stop his journey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The best use of this though is the\u00a0<strong>anger<\/strong> level.\u00a0 Immediately upon entering it, the player character is thrown by a flying creature down into a small desert area.\u00a0 Throughout the rest of the level, he has to dart from hiding place to hiding place avoiding being attacked, and never really being allowed to rest.\u00a0 While there&#8217;s no actual dialog in this game, the idle animations make it clear that the player is afraid of his situation, and the direct anger shown by the creature plays right into the theme of the area.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_392\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-392\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_foxbro.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The fox partner is an important helper in showing the player where to go, which is often necessary due to somewhat inconsistent level design.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That said, the gameplay doesn&#8217;t quite keep with the rest of the presentation aspects.\u00a0 One of the most obvious problems is that it can often be REALLY easy to get lost.\u00a0 While there is some merit to exploring and finding some hidden artifacts and collectibles, there were quite a few times where I simply didn&#8217;t know what direction I was supposed to be going.\u00a0 The real main clue that something is the right direction tended to be looking for climbable ledges in weird spots, rather than more elegant environmental solutions.\u00a0 This is solved through the use of a fox, which tends to place itself in the direction you want to go, yelping away to lead you in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that though, the rest of the gameplay is pretty basic.\u00a0 The pattern has a tendency to be a single room puzzle, followed by a bit of traversal, or a single room that can be looped back into itself in multiple vertical layers.\u00a0 Puzzles run the gamut from block pushing to light manipulation to the use of physics to get through the environment.\u00a0 However, they don&#8217;t really ever get to a point where the solution isn&#8217;t pretty easy to arrive at, and feel like they serve more as pacing instruments than actual gameplay.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_389\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-389\" style=\"width: 474px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rime_artstyle.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While the Switch version doesn&#8217;t lose as much visual fidelity as I expected, performance suffered as a result.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Having played this on the Switch, I can also only recommend to play it elsewhere.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not that the Switch version is bad, but the performance was pretty typically under 30 FPS.\u00a0 In general, as an Unreal developer this was a disappointment.\u00a0 There&#8217;s some areas where things could have been obviously cut to improve frame times (sight lines in open areas are huge, and could have used more aggressive LODing).\u00a0 The level streaming the other platforms use to break up the levels is also in place here, but causes a much more significant framerate impact.\u00a0 That wouldn&#8217;t typically be a huge issue, but a lot of the streaming points took place at areas where more important interactions with the environment were occurring, rather than at more passive hallway areas.\u00a0 In general, it doesn&#8217;t feel like a game that should be suffering from the sort of performance issues I was seeing, especially relative to its competition on the system.<\/p>\n<p>All that said, this is absolutely a game worth playing.\u00a0 While it&#8217;s not quite the classic that <em>Ico<\/em> or <em>Journey<\/em> have been recognized as, it&#8217;s still a pretty solid example of a game as a piece of art.\u00a0 Visually it uses a simple art style to very cleanly represent the emotional state of the player&#8217;s story arc.\u00a0 The audio design is fantastic, and <a href=\"http:\/\/music.greybox.com\/album\/rime-deluxe-soundtrack\">its soundtrack<\/a> is one of the best of the year.\u00a0 However, play this one on as high-performance of a platform as possible; it&#8217;ll be absolutely worth the bump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More Info from Grey Box Genre: Adventure\/Puzzle Platform: Switch Also Available On: PS4, Xbox One, Windows TL;DR Light puzzle-based gameplay feels like it aspires to be Ico\/Journey, even if it doesn&#8217;t quite reach those heights Fantastically good soundtrack and beautiful visual style Disappointing performance problems on the Switch, even in docked mode Admittedly this is &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=388\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Game Ramblings #59 &#8211; RiME&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,10,83],"tags":[35,17,134,84],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-puzzle","category-switch","tag-adventure","tag-puzzle","tag-rime","tag-switch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}